Rub Down
by Everlark Pearl
Summary: Peeta knows the best way to relax Katniss when she's frustrated.


**A/N: This was something I wrote back in September and for some reason, forgot to ever upload it here, so I'm doing it now.**

**Very special thanks to ichooseupeetachu for being my cheerleader and drill sergeant while I worked on this and for pre-reading it for me!**

**NOTE: This is a standalone, canon piece and is not part of Synchronicity in any way.**

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Peeta peered out the bedroom window, laughing as Katniss ran back and forth between the line of houses in the Victors' Village. She was exhausted, he could tell. She stopped every few minutes to catch her breath, bending over and planting her hands on her knees, her shoulders heaving. When another one of Haymitch's geese sprinted out from behind a house, she'd tear off after it, abandoning the slow and quiet approach to corralling all of the loud, obnoxious fowls into their pen for the night.

The sun had set a long time ago, and despite Peeta's countless offers to help, Katniss continually refused. Eventually, she sent him inside after his howls of laughter grew too distracting, insisting she'd be just a few more minutes.

After forty five minutes had passed and Katniss still hadn't come in, Peeta was just about to head back outside to insist that he help when he saw Katniss throw her hands in the air in defeat and storm off in the direction of their house.

Peeta moved away from the window as quickly as he could, sliding into bed and making himself comfortable just in time. The bedroom door flew open, revealing a breathless and disheveled Katniss.

"Don't even laugh," she warned, treading into the room toward the dresser angrily.

But it was too late. Peeta took one look at the smudges of dirt and sweat on her cheeks and couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face. The way her hair had come loose from her braid, falling in messy tangles around her face as she hovered over the open dresser drawer brought forth the first round of Peeta's laughter. When he noticed the corner of Katniss's lip quirk up into a smile, he lost it completely.

"I'm sorry," Peeta muttered between laughs. "I did offer to help, though."

Katniss ignored Peeta's comments, even when he left the bed and began walking toward her. Rather than looking at Peeta, she focused on shuffling through the drawers for clean clothes, setting out a simple gray t-shirt and panties on the flat surface of the dresser.

Peeta reached out, pushing a stray lock of hair out of Katniss's face. "Hey," he said with a chuckle, eliciting another smirk from Katniss as she turned to face him.

"What the hell happened to Haymitch, anyway?" Katniss asked. "He was supposed to be the one helping."

"That's his game," Peeta said with a smirk. "He asks you to help him with his geese and then he leaves you to do it yourself. I tried to warn you."

"Lesson learned," Katniss said, pushing the dresser drawer closed and grabbing her fresh clothes. "I'm going to take a shower." She started to walk away, but was pulled back by Peeta.

"Wait," he said. He closed the space between them, and in an instant, his lips were on hers, drawing her into a slow, teasing kiss and pulling away just as Katniss's hand began to wander up Peeta's bare chest. "Have I ever told you," he started, nipping at her bottom lip between soft pecks. "That," kiss. "You're extremely irresistible when you're angry and dirty?"

Katniss pulled back and pushed Peeta away playfully. "Shut up," she laughed.

"I mean it," Peeta insisted. He lifted his hand to Katniss's cheek, rubbing at the smudge of dirt tenderly. "It's working for me."

Katniss's hand found the drawstring of Peeta's pajama bottoms and she pulled, drawing him closer to her body. The moan that escaped from her throat when she felt Peeta, half hard, against her thigh was cut off by his mouth covering hers, lavishing her lips with kisses.

The loud honk of Haymitch's stray goose filtered in through the open bedroom window. All at once, Katniss and Peeta broke down into fits of laughter, their heated moment ruined.

"It sounds like your friend is back," Peeta joked. "Did you want to go back out to visit?"

"I'm not going back out there," Katniss said. "That damn thing can stay out all night, for all I care. Maybe a fox will get it."

"That'd would teach Haymitch to quit slacking off," Peeta contemplated. "But maybe a verbal warning would be better first." Talking to Haymitch was like talking to a brick wall, but forcing that goose into the pen was ten times easier than listening to Haymitch belly ache about the entire gaggle if something went wrong. "Go take your shower, I'll get that thing back in its pen."

Katniss looked like she wanted to argue, but Peeta's lips were there to stop her.

"Go on," he said. "I've done this for Haymitch plenty of times before."

"Don't kill yourself trying to get that one," Katniss warned. "He's stubborn."

"I like stubborn," Peeta said with a coy smile. He reached down and took Katniss's clean clothes from her hand. "Leave these in here," he murmured. "If you're out of the shower before I get back in, just get in bed. Don't put them on."

Katniss let out a shaky breath and nodded, setting the garments back on top of the dresser and sneaking one last kiss, letting her hand linger on the broad expanse of Peeta's bare chest before heading to the bathroom.

Once the bathroom door shut and Peeta heard the shower water begin to run, he sprung into action. He made quick work of the bed, pulling the large duvet and top sheet away and shoving them off into a darkened corner of the bedroom.

He prepped the area hastily, grabbing a fresh bath towel from the linen closet in the hallway and spreading it out on Katniss's side of the bed. Even if he wasn't back in the house by the time she finished her shower, she would know what the towel meant, and she would know what to do while she waited for Peeta to return.

As much as he didn't want to, Peeta left the bedroom and made his way downstairs, grabbing what remained of a started loaf of bread to bring outside. If that didn't get the bird into the pen, nothing would.

Peeta tore bits away from the loaf of bread and set them down in a trail between the houses in the direction of the pen and waited quietly. Sure enough, the uncaged goose made its way toward the pen, plucking up the bits of bread on his way.

"If you want the rest of this bread, you have to get in that pen," Peeta said calmly, setting another piece down at the bird's feet. "Go on, take it."

Just as the goose bent its neck toward the bread, Peeta grabbed him with one arm and opened the pen, shoving both the goose and the bread inside. The rest of the geese began honking loudly at the commotion, and a few began fighting each other for the bread.

"You guys have to figure that one out," Peeta called back, walking back toward home.

Haymitch's voice filtered out from his porch, startling Peeta. "They sound like they're killing each other back there."

"Maybe they are," Peeta snapped back. He wanted to ignore Haymitch and keep walking, but the scoff that came from the porch sounded like a challenge. "You should try caging them yourself tomorrow night instead of relying on me or Katniss to do it."

"Yeah, but it was pretty funny watching Sweetheart run around after those little shits, wasn't it?"

It was. It was very funny, and Peeta had to fight the overwhelming urge to smile at the thought of it, but he refused to give Haymitch the satisfaction by agreeing with him.

"I bet it'd be even funnier watching you try it," Peeta said.

"I like your outfit," Haymitch said sardonically. "Are you planning to give the neighbors a visual show tonight instead of the audio show you and her give almost every night?"

Peeta looked down at his faulty outfit - a pair of slippers that were now covered in dirt from Haymitch's barren backyard, and the thin pair of black pajama pants he'd been in since Katniss sent him inside earlier that evening.

"Goodnight, Haymitch," Peeta said, resuming his trek back toward home. He meant it when he told Haymitch that he should try caging his own geese for a change, and tomorrow he would be sure that is exactly what happened.

Once Peeta was back in the house, he slipped out of his dirty slippers and immediately made for the bedroom, finding Katniss standing at the foot of the bed, wrapped in a towel. She spun around quickly, easily able to hear him coming up behind her.

"Is this why you wanted me to keep my clothes off?" Katniss asked. She took a step closer to Peeta, allowing him to work his fingers under the edge of the towel.

"Yeah, I thought you could use it," Peeta said, caressing Katniss's warm skin with the tips of his fingers. "Unless you don't want me to."

"I kept my clothes off, didn't I?" Katniss said with a smirk. Her hands covered Peeta's, urging him to loosen the towel that was still wrapped around her body, and as it fell to the ground and pooled around her feet, she pressed her naked body against Peeta.

Katniss sighed when Peeta's hands moved down to squeeze her ass, and she responded by drawing her arms around Peeta's neck, pulling his mouth down to meet her own.

The intensity of the kiss was surprising. Katniss opened her mouth, welcoming Peeta's tongue in, and she sucked on it greedily, drawing out a satisfied and muffled moan from Peeta deep within his chest.

"Come on," Peeta murmured. He smiled against Katniss's lips and she chuckled lightly as they attempted to navigate toward the bed, peppering soft kisses to each other's mouths while Peeta's hands still continually kneaded Katniss's backside.

Katniss dropped down to sit on the bed when they finally reached the mattress. Before Peeta could move, Katniss pulled on the waistband of his pants, summoning him toward her. She pressed her lips to his bare stomach and trailed wet kisses that followed the path of light hair downward, not stopping when she reached the fabric of Peeta's pants.

Her lips swept over the front of Peeta's pants as her hand joined in, smoothing the light material over his cock and kissing the outline. The friction of her hand and the fabric mixed with the warmth of her mouth on his cock was causing Peeta to grow hard quickly. His hand cupped the back of Katniss's head, his fingers raking through the damp tresses.

As Peeta's fingers graced the soft skin at the nape of Katniss's neck, he was finally brought to his senses.

Pulling away, he smiled down at Katniss. "Put your hair up," he said, tilting her head up with his fingers before bending over to kiss her. "Then lie down on the towel. I'll be right back."

Peeta left the room and headed toward the kitchen, pulling a white bowl and a bottle of oil from the cupboard.

A few months prior, Peeta came across one of Mrs. Everdeen's old healing books in the back of the closet in his painting room. In it, he found that healing massage oils could be made from a lot of the same oils he used for baking, and soon enough, Peeta was concocting what the book claimed to be a relaxing massage oil and used it on Katniss for the first time that very same night. To say it relaxed her would have been an understatement.

The way Katniss unraveled under his ministrations that night turned him on more than he could have ever imagined. Since then, it didn't matter if he was at home, at work, or walking through town, every time he thought about the soft sighs that escaped from Katniss's lips as he touched her, his cock would twitch as his heart pounded against his chest. He was anxious to try it again, determined to linger and tease Katniss until she couldn't take it anymore and was begging for him.

With the oil warmed and poured into the bowl, Peeta made it back to the bedroom quickly and found Katniss sitting on the towel he had set down earlier, her hair pulled up into a messy bun. She smiled when Peeta entered the room and her eyes moved to the white bowl in a hurry.

"On your back," Peeta said gently.

Peeta crawled onto the bed as Katniss scooted down the towel and laid down on her back. She smiled at Peeta teasingly as she brought her arms up over her head to stretch her body. Peeta couldn't help but stare at the way her breasts moved as she shifted. Her nipples stood in stiff peaks, rising and falling with each breath she took. Her lower half wiggled over the towel, and Peeta's mind drifted to thinking about how wet Katniss probably already was.

"You're trying to make me come before I even touch you, aren't you?" Peeta asked, letting out an exasperated laugh which Katniss returned wholly.

"Touch me, then," Katniss urged. She brought her arms back down to her sides and relaxed her body, resting her head on a pillow and closing her eyes. "Touch me."

Peeta sat back on his haunches and grabbed Katniss's feet with one hand, setting them down in his lap before dipping his fingers into the bowl of warm oil. Once his fingers were thoroughly coated, he massaged the bottoms of Katniss's feet, pressing the pad of his thumb into the soft soles and smiling to himself when Katniss began moaning in response.

"I'm only touching your feet," Peeta joked. "What are you going to do when I move higher?"

Katniss flexed her feet, sighing when Peeta rolled her ankles gently. "It just feels so good," she said. "Your hands feel so good."

Adding more oil to his hands, Peeta moved to Katniss's calves. He worked in long strokes using his entire hand, squeezing Katniss's slick skin and rolling the muscle and tissue in his palms.

"Mmm, Peeta," Katniss moaned. She stretched her legs, bringing her feet back down into Peeta's lap. Slowly, she pressed her feet against Peeta's hard cock, rubbing the bulge through his pants.

"Oh, fuck," Peeta breathed. The urge to abandon his plans sounded more and more tempted with each pass of Katniss's foot over his hard length. He bucked his hips to increase the pressure against his groin and groaned. "Do you feel how hard you've already got me, Katniss?"

Katniss nodded, her eyes still closed. "I feel it."

As Peeta continued to grip and release Katniss's lower legs, her hand dipped between her legs. Peeta kept his eyes on her fingers as they disappeared beyond the swath of hair at her middle and dipped between her folds for just a moment before she removed them, reaching the hand out to Peeta, urging him to taste her.

Peeta leaned forward and captured Katniss's wrist, bringing her fingers to his lips. With her legs still in his lap working his erection and his free hand still rolling across the slick flesh, Peeta sucked Katniss's fingers into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the digits in attempts to gather every last bit of the sweet moisture that was purely Katniss.

He could have stopped there. Spread her legs and buried his face between them to lick and suck her clit and lap up every last drop of her, but he couldn't. That was not the plan. Pulling Katniss's fingers from his mouth with a light pop, Peeta turned his focus back to exploring the rest of her body. His hands roamed further upward, spreading more oil on her thighs and pushing the excess up toward her hips.

He worked his hands around in wide circles, traveling up her thighs and over her hips, sweeping down and around the sides of her ass, kneading every inch with the heel of his palms. Slowly, he worked his way inward, each run of his hands around her thighs inching closer and closer to her middle.

Katniss shifted, a silent message to Peeta that she was ready for him to touch her core, and she whimpered impatiently when Peeta's hands touched her everywhere but where she was needed him to.

"What do you want, Katniss?" Peeta asked, a wicked smirk springing to his lips.

"Your hands," Katniss murmured, gasping when Peeta brought his legs around either side of her and straddled her thighs. "Between my legs."

Peeta continued to knead the soft skin of Katniss's inner thighs, dipping his fingers between her legs and brushing his thumbs over the hair. Katniss squirmed, still unsatisfied.

"No?" Peeta asked, his voice dripping with mock curiosity. "Is that not where you want my hands?"

"Peeta," Katniss mewled, her pleading tone mixing with a frustrated chuckle. "Are you really going to make me do this?"

"Do what?" He smiled, adjusting his position.

Katniss grumbled and curled her finger at Peeta, summoning him closer. With his ear close to Katniss's lips, she finally spoke. "I can't take the throbbing anymore," she said, her voice gravelly. "I need your fingers."

Peeta smiled as he pulled away, resuming the large, circular strokes with his right hand until it covered Katniss's middle. "Here?" he asked, slipping his thumb between her wet folds and moving it upward to her clit. "Is this where you need me to touch you?"

"Yes," Katniss breathed. "Right there."

The pad of Peeta's thumb slipped over Katniss's clit easily, and he worked her with short swipes back and forth. "You want to come already?" he asked.

"No," Katniss said breathlessly. "Not yet. I just needed you to touch me for a little while."

"Good," Peeta said. "I don't want you to come yet."

Peeta removed his hand from Katniss's middle and leaned forward, planting kisses to her stomach as it contracted under his lips and a light chuckle sounded.

"Your hair is tickling my stomach," Katniss smiled, running her fingers through the golden curls that hung down loosely.

Peeta shook his head wildly, making sure the tips of his hair continually grazed Katniss's stomach as laughter erupted from deep within her chest. Peeta took the moment of distraction to pour more oil from the bowl, dispensing it in a line from Katniss's bellybutton all the way up between her breasts.

His hands spread the oil over her upper body, but stopped when he reached her breasts. Leaning forward again, his mouth trapped a taut nipple between his lips and he sucked on it greedily, nipping at lightly with his teeth before swirling his tongue around the dark nub.

He repeated the assault on the other nipple, sucking and biting harder when Katniss buried her hands in his hair, locking him in place, urging him not to stop. He squeezed her unattended breast in his hand, pinching and rolling the nipple between his fingers.

Finally, Peeta had to pull away. The groan of protest that shot from Katniss's mouth brought Peeta's lips to hers, silencing her noises of dissent.

"There's more of you I want to get to," Peeta said, nipping at Katniss's bottom lip. "Turn over."

Peeta eased off of Katniss's lower half, allowing her to flip over onto her stomach. Once she was situated, Peeta moved back down, settling his body just under Katniss's ass, his legs on either side of her.

With both of them settled, Peeta poured more oil from the bowl starting at Katniss's lower back. He let the thick liquid pool and poured it in excess, not stopping until it began to drip down Katniss's sides. He dragged his hands through the oil, spreading it over her back and down, kneading the slick liquid into her ass with slow, meaningful movements.

Katniss began to reach back, searching blindly for Peeta until her hand came in contact with his cock. Peeta thrusted into her hand as he continued to massage Katniss's ass, the fabric of his pants straining over his erection. The pressure was becoming too much for Peeta, and as though she could read his mind, Katniss moved her hand up higher and pulled at the drawstring of his pants, loosening the tie and pulling at the waistband, allowing Peeta's cock to spring free.

As Peeta continued to massage Katniss's lower back and ass, she wrapped her hand around his cock loosely, stroking him easily as he began to thrust again.

It took several minutes, but eventually, Katniss had to let go. "My arm is starting to cramp," she said, laughing into the pillow. "I'm sorry!"

Peeta laughed with her, pulling back so she could set her arm back down on the mattress. "It's ok," he assured her. "It did feel really good, though."

Quieting down quickly, he grabbed for the bowl of oil again, pouring a thin stream over his cock before slipping the head down and bucking forward, sliding his erection in between Katniss's ass cheeks.

It felt impossibly good and looked even better. Peeta became fixated on the way his cock, slick with oil, slipped between the swells of Katniss's ass repeatedly.

Katniss started to lift her hips in response to Peeta's movements, urging him to slide his cock down further. Peeta obliged, pushing his erection down past her ass and, with a little help from Katniss, easily slipping into her warm, wet, center.

Peeta dropped his upper body lower, propping himself up with his hands on either side of Katniss as he moved inside her slowly, teasingly. He flicked his tongue out, licking a line up her back, following her spine all the way up to the back of her neck. He stopped there and began alternating between kissing, sucking, and biting on the soft skin.

"Harder," Katniss whimpered. She brought her knees up, raising her ass and pushing back against Peeta's cock impatiently.

"Do you want to fuck me, Katniss?" Peeta growled into Katniss's ear. Her moan was all the response he needed to hear. He pulled out, resting on his haunches again. "Come here," he said.

As Katniss shuffled around, Peeta pulled his pants off the rest of the way and waited, stroking his erection as he watched her climb on top of him and hover just slightly before coming down hard and pushing his cock into her all at once. She didn't hesitate for a minute, swirling her hips and planting her feet on the mattress for leverage as she rode Peeta hard.

Peeta dropped his head down quickly in search of Katniss's nipple, remembering how much she was enjoying it before. He kissed around the nipple before teasing it slightly with the tip of his tongue, and when his teeth captured the hard nub and he began to suck, Katniss rode him even more roughly.

Katniss dropped her hands behind her to hold herself up and she leaned backward, giving Peeta easy access to her clit as she pounded down against him. She was finally ready to come. Peeta found the nerve with his thumb and rubbed in vigorous circles, watching as his cock continually disappeared when Katniss ground down on it.

Peeta knew Katniss was close when her legs began to tremble and she threw her arms around his head. Pressing Peeta's face into her chest, drawing her body impossibly close and enabling Peeta to tease her nipple with his teeth again, he worked one nipple with his mouth while his fingers rolled the other.

"I'm coming, Peeta," Katniss called out. He felt her tense up, fisting the hair at the back of his head as she spasmed around his cock. Her moans came out as a deep hum from the back of her throat, down through her chest. Peeta rested his head to her chest and listened as each breath brought another moan.

Though Katniss's movements were slower, she did not stop once. She went back to swirling her hips, purposefully clenching her walls around Peeta's length and keeping a firm grip on his hair, squeezing her fists and giving Peeta the most pleasurable pain he'd ever felt.

"I'm going to come," Peeta choked out, bringing his arms around her and pressing his hands flat against Katniss's back. His mouth moved to her collarbone, and as his orgasm claimed him, he bit down, moaning into the crook of her neck while he emptied inside of her.

They collapsed on the bed, breathless and slick with oil. Katniss stayed on top of Peeta, resting her head on his chest, neither of them making any attempts to move.

"I don't want to move," Katniss hummed. "Do you mind being my pillow tonight?"

"I'm your pillow every night," Peeta laughed. "What difference does tonight make?"

"I just want to fall asleep like this, right here."

"Feeling relaxed?" Peeta asked, smiling.

"Mmhmm.."

"I bet you forgot you ever had to chase those geese around tonight," Peeta said.

"Well, I did," Katniss said. "But now you just reminded me."

"Sorry," Peeta laughed. He pulled the hair tie from Katniss's head and released her bun, combing his fingers through her hair and taking in the smell of her shampoo. "I've got some news for Haymitch."

"What's that?" Katniss asked.

"We are going to make him corral his own damn geese tomorrow night."


End file.
